6 months ago my daughter purchased a 2006 VW Passat 2.0. No lights on the dash and boom the car just died. Timing belt snapped ripped into her pistons and her engine is now just junk. This is her baby, she takes extremely great care of this car, because she saved for a long time to buy it. We have no money for a new engine and now I just drive her to and from college!

Update from Oct 2, 2015: I have to apologize I was misinformed about the timing belt. It has been looking into further and found that the oil bolt, which I have read has happened to many other owners have also complained of the defect, was the cause of the engine damage. But, engine still has to be replaced either way.

Bought the car in Feb.2011 from Ft.Lauderdale live in West Palm Beach,drove the car back and forth several time to get the paperwork finalized and minor cosmetics fixed on car,on Feb.28 I went to Sears auto care for a routine oil change before heading north to Melbourne fl,for my weekend drill with the National Guard,Ieft the car for several hours before returning to pick it up,as I drove away from service bay the car was making a loud noise,I then circled parking lot to report the noise to the mechanic,I was then told that they made a mistake and put too much oil in the car,they ask me to leave it again so they could drain it and re-do it,I later returned to not only the loud noise but also dash lights reading engine oil pressure and check engine and before I could turn around again in the same parking lot the car died and would not start again,only after I called the police did sears agree to tow the car to the vw dealership where I was told the timing chain broke not the belt but the chain and would cost ME 1100.00 because the mechanic could not say 100% that sears did anything to cause it to break,I say they forgot to put oil back in after the oil change but because the car was not driven far enough to cause engine damage where you can see the obvious shavings in oil pan the vw mechanic said the chain just popped,i'm no mechanic but how in the hell a timing chain not a wearable part like a belt but the chain on a 2006 Passat with 80000 miles just pop,if sears didn't screw up my car which I suspect they did,but by some strange fluke they didn't then Volkswagen makes a pretty sh*tty car,I have a friend with a 1998 nissan Maxima 300000 miles don't do oil changes or any maint.the car even caught fire under the hood and after the fire dept put it out the car cranked right up and to this day she still drives it,now thats a quality vehicle,if vw is making parts out of rubber bands someone needs to be held accountable.

My 06 VW Passat 2.0T broke down on the highway because of overheating and would not start again. The dashboard displayed a message about the coolant temperature being too high. It was towed to the dealership who wanted $500 just to take the engine apart to look at what was wrong with it. Before looking at it they told me that something catastrophic to the engine has happened and they were sure the timing belt was broken.

I had it towed to a Mineke shop who only charged me only $80 to take it apart because I was tired of dealing with the dealership and was really feeling ripped off. When they took it apart, they said the timing belt was still on there but that the engine was in such bad shape it needed to be replaced. They looked around for a used engine and the total cost for damage was around $5K.

I contacted VW corporate and they said that because I was over 60K miles, it was no longer under warranty and they would not assist with any costs. I just think that it's ridiculous that a 4 year old engine should ever have to be replaced especially if I was sending my car to the dealership on a regular basis. If there was anything wrong with my engine or anything that would've affected it, why wasn't it detected?